


Riding the Wheel of If

by MrsHamill



Series: Riding the Wheel of If [1]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Reality, Angst, Angst and Humor, Every single tag there is, Multi, Multiverse, lots of alternate realities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-03-18
Updated: 2000-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 09:14:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6046123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsHamill/pseuds/MrsHamill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Qui-Gon is dead and Obi-Wan is stuck with a whiny padawan. When he tests his new lightsaber, he discovers the Force is not done with him and starts him on the road of "The Wheel of If".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Riding the Wheel of If

  
  
photomanipulation by Eiluned

  


**From the introduction to the 'zine:**  


  


Waaaaay back at the beginning of 2000, I was just flexing my muscles as a slash writer on Master and Apprentice, taking Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon out for spins and rinse cycles with increasing abandon, and getting the hard-won appreciation from my peers. At some point in those early months, I had a very strange dream... Obi-Wan, walking into his quarters, and seeing Qui-Gon, who looked -- _different_ somehow. Obi stands in confusion as Qui walks over to him, grabs his crotch and says, "You can't be _my_ Obi-Wan; you still have your testicles."

It was a strange enough dream (even for me!) that I wrote to Hiperbunny the next day and told her about it. When she picked herself up off the floor again, she told me I had to write that one up into a fic. But I didn't have a clue how... until my wandering eyes lit upon an old favorite in my library, L. Sprauge DeCamp's _The Wheels of If_. I'd like to say that the Earth moved, lightning hit, and Elvis appeared, but what really happened was just a bad headache as the Obi!Muse began whispering in my ear. When I cleaned that one out, he just moved to the other one. Persistent little bastard, he is.

So, I wrote to Fox, the best damn editor on the East Coast (and possibly the world) with the idea -- the mother of all AUs. Obi-Wan, searching the dimensions with the aid of his traveling lightsaber, looking for his Qui-Gon. Did she think it was worthwhile? Did she think it was something people might want to read?

When my head stopped ringing from her smacking it, I wrote again to Hiperbunny, begging her to help me with it. Wisely, she told me to bugger off, she had enough to do, and I could handle it all on my own. I wasn't too sure about that, but she's a wise rodent -- at least usually. So, on March 22, 2000, the first episode of _Riding the Wheel of If_ was posted to MA, along with a question -- does anybody think this is worthwhile? Several dozen strident emails later, I was sucked in like cat gorp up a Hoover and writing furiously, for a while there producing an episode _a day._ The little bastard simply wouldn't let up. 

By the time of my nervous breakdown -- some time in early May, I think it was -- I was up to about episode twenty and had spectacular writers beating down my door asking to take an episode. My husband gently persuaded me (using a tire-iron) to let them take over for a little while, dammit, so I did. Finally, about a month before the East Coast Un-Slumber Soiree at my house, Episode Thirty was posted and the long, strange trip was over. 

Or was it? Everyone from Fox to my cat was whispering _'zine_ to me, and, while the spirit was willing, I really had no clue how to go about it. Actually, I had given up after working with the wonderful Lori and getting lost. Then, the marvelous Layna Ayre Andersen released _Buying Trouble_ in 'zine form. The beauteous and extraordinarily competent Sian, when she sent me my copy of _Buying Trouble_ , diffidently offered to do _Wheel_ as a 'zine too. I wrote a long note to her, explaining why this was patently impossible -- it clocks in at over 250,000 words! -- and basically whining my many reservations. Her response to that was "Well, you had to go and make it a challenge."

Less than six months later... well. See the above. As far as I'm concerned, it was a miracle.

So many people have contributed to this in so many ways, it would take another ten pages to properly thank them all. So I won't, but I have to thank a few people, the ones that, without their being around this wouldn't have been finished. Hell, it wouldn't have even been _started._ Two of them I've already mentioned, Hiperbunny and Fox. Fox especially, since she edited every damn word of this thing _twice_. If there's a reason it's readable, it's because of her, trust me. The artists -- like the gorgeous RavenD -- who inspired me to bigger and better things and fed my ego shamelessly. The other writers who contributed to this and to my muse -- like Rushlight -- and who really helped me finish the damn thing -- like Emila and JayKay.

And my husband, who really _is_ Mark Hamill, who didn't divorce me when I became completely obsessed to the point that the Obi!Muse was practically sharing the bed with us. Thank you, my love. I'm sorry I'll never get us rich writing fanfiction, but it certainly has been fun!

  
_Herndon, Virginia_   
_January, 2003_   
  


**So, Moving Right Along:**

There are four arcs to this saga. Cycle. Thing. The first arc is the original Wheel, the one that's been made into a 'zine. The second arc is Obi-Wan's marriage to Qui-Gon and the first stages of his healing. The third arc is The Clone War, and the fourth arc is Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon raising the Skywalker twins to knighthood. There have been stories written in each of these arcs, though only the first two are completed.

There are also 'spin-offs', or reinventions of the wheel (as Fox named them). Three are in the first Wheel arc. 

Someone -- I think it was Rita -- once said to me that it might be helpful to have a cast of characters in the post-Wheeliverse, so that those of us with Swiss cheese for brains could remember who the fuck they were. That's a good idea, I thought, especially since I count myself in among them.

On top of that, I thought, well, maybe I should have a list of the stories, and which timeline to follow. Since some of them are PWP filler stories (but still relevant!), that was kinda hard to do. But here's my best effort. All of these were written by me (and all post-Wheel stories) unless otherwise noted. 

**Original Wheel stories** , 1-31: 

WoI 1: [The Beginning](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8226278)

WoI 2: [Send in the Clones](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8226842)

WoI 3: [Prophet and Loss](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8227213)

WoI 4: [Gender Relations](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8227477)

WoI 5: [Mistaken Identity](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8227745)

WoI 6: [Bonds and Choices (co-authored with Hiperbunny)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8228129)

WoI 7: [What's in a Code?](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8228822)

WoI 8: [More Gender Relations (co-authored with Rembrandts Wife)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8233748)

WoI 9: [Double Your Pleasure](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8233760)

WoI 10: [Turning, Turning](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8233787)

WoI 11: [Incarnation (by Master Eliz-Mar Von)](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_11.htm)

WoI 12: [Better Late...](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8006) (by Fox) 

WoI 13: [Oh, Help](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_13.htm)

WoI 14: [Life, Simplified](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_14.htm)

WoI 15: [Seeking an Audience](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_15.htm)

Epilog to WoI 15: [What Happened Next](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2692454) by LdyGossamer

WoI 16: [They Might Be Heroes](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_16.htm)

Epilog to WoI 16: [Heroes of the Galaxy by Emrin Alexander](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/heroes.html)

WoI 17: [Into Darkness](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8228975) Note: In this episode, things get ugly. There are specific warnings at the bottom of the story.

WoI 18: [Seraglio](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_18.htm)

WoI 19: [Future Imperfect](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_19.htm)

WoI 20: [Awakening (by PadawanHilary)](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_20.htm)

WoI 21: [Plots and Counterplots](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_21.htm)

WoI 22: [He's My Brother (by Ausmac)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8256673)

Epilog to Episode 22: [Wild Desire by MJ Lee](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/wild_desire.html)

WoI 23: [Love](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_23.htm)

WoI 24: [Indecent Proposal (by Rushlight)](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_24.htm)

WoI 25: [Healing](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_25.htm)

WoI 26: [Unintentional Consequences (by Res)](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_26.htm)

WoI 27: [Sacrifices (by Dee)](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_27.htm)

WoI 28: [Knight Moves (by JayKay)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10955613)

WoI 29: [Redemption](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_29.htm)

WoI 30: [The Force is a Harsh Mistress](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1661288) (written by Emila-Wan Kenobi) 

WoI 31: [The Wheels of If](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/WoI_31.htm)

ending with Epilog to the Saga: [_Huzzah du Penda Netu!_](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8223284)

  


**Post Wheel stories** , in the order they probably should be read (though it is not the order in which they were written, and you can blame MuseBoy for that): 

[Gooeymoon](http://www.mrshamill.com/momskitchen/Wheel/gooeymoon.html)[beginning of the first post-Wheel arc] 

[Sometimes, You Fly](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6055131)

[No Hiding Place](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6055183)

[Becalmed](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6058522)

[Absence Makes...](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6058627)

[Boom](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6058657)

[Try Starting with I'm Sorry](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6059734)

[Cueca Solo](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6059797)

[Postcards from the Edge](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6059940)

[Damage Control](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060034)

[With This Pain, I Thee Feel](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060175)

[beginning of the second post-Wheel arc, the Clone War] 

[How Qui-Gon Got His Groove Back](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060421)

[Prologues and Afterwords](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060700)

[Marking Time, Making Peace](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060823)

[Potemkin](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6060907)

[Velleity](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6061345)

[At least one more story here, I hope] 

[beginning of the third post-Wheel arc, Raising Cain] 

[Anniversary](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6061398)

[Scenes from a Marriage: A Story in Three Parts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6061483)

[Hopefully a bunch of other stories that take place between the first and second part of the above] 

**Okay, now that's done, here's a...**

Dramatis Personae (people so far) (Note Spoilers!): 

Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan: NOT master and apprentice in the post-Wheeliverse. Qui-Gon's young padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, died at age fourteen, and Qui-Gon blamed himself for the death. Since Wheel Obi-Wan has come to live in this particular universe, they have been married and Obi-Wan is well on the path to healing, not that Qui-Gon makes it easy for him. 

Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus: A padawan of Master Sifo-Dyas who fell to the dark and who now wants to destroy the Jedi. 

Knight Maul (as opposed to Darth Maul): a former apprentice to Palpatine/Darth Sidious. After Palpatine's destruction by the Council, Maul had a run-in with Darth Tyrannus (a person he had no knowledge about) and came to the Jedi Temple for sanctuary. He was taken as a padawan by Master Yoda and granted his knighthood in less than four years. 

Jayden Youmos: a Jedi Knight who was accidentally assigned the same quarters as Maul was. They met, sparks flew, and now they're still sharing those quarters. 

Healer Dotrick: a saurian-humanoid and Obi-Wan's mind healer. She has formidable telepathic talent and because of that, does not like to be touched or to touch. She is highly empathic as well, and treating both the boys drives her almost crazy at times. 

Healer Bruloss: A Jedi Healer who specializes in cloning technology. 

Claum Showat: The Quartermaster of the Temple. Basically everything that's infrastructure to the Temple falls under Ser Showat's purview: housing, janitorial, commissary and stores, technical, weapons and vehicles. She does a damn fine job. 

Loral AmKaRa and his mate, SaSalasho (Sasha) Fellis: masters to Anakin Skywalker and parents of Malvis FeLoRa, who will grow up to become Maul's padawan. 

Asajj Ventress: former padawan of Master Dooku and a co-conspirator in his quest to destroy the Jedi. She is lovers with Aurra Sing, a Force sensitive bounty hunter who Dooku also apprenticed, but outside the Temple. 

Bruck Chun: a pilot in the Temple, one of Claum's people. He had been an initiate but before he could be chosen as a padawan, decided to be a pilot instead of a Jedi. He does not have a 'saber, but he can use one. He and Siri Tachi (a knight) have a casual relationship. 


End file.
